All Chapters of the Legend : Chapter 71
- Chapter 80
114 chapters
Chapter Seventy one– The Retaliation
The next morning, Greyharbor awoke to the sound of sirens.At first, no one understood. Then the news spread like oil over calm water: Cole Hadley had been arrested.Two black sedans from the regional cybercrime division had rolled into town at dawn, flanked by private security wearing the Locke insignia in discreet silver pins. They stormed the boathouse, seized Cole’s computers, and led him out in handcuffs. The warrant — signed at midnight — accused him of “unauthorized access to corporate servers” and “digital sabotage of commercial assets.”Sarah had been there, half-dressed and shouting as they dragged him past her. Adrian arrived moments too late — just in time to see the convoy’s taillights vanishing up the coastal road.Now, in the raw quiet that followed, the boathouse looked like a wound. The tables overturned, hard drives gone, cables torn from the walls.Sarah stood among the wreckage, trembling with fury. “They’re not even pretending anymore! This isn’t justice — it’s th
Chapter Seventy two– The Hidden Thread
Greyharbor’s dawn was muted — a sky washed in dull silver, the sea sluggish and cold. The town moved quietly, as if afraid to draw attention from the powerful eye watching it.Inside what was left of the boathouse, Adrian sat before a map of the region spread across a table lit by a single lantern. The air still smelled faintly of burnt wires and salt.Across from him, Sarah typed furiously on her repaired laptop — salvaged from the raid, its casing cracked but functional. She hadn’t spoken much since Cole’s arrest. Her focus had turned sharp, obsessive.Adrian finally broke the silence. “Any word from the FreePress Alliance?”“They’ve gone dark,” Sarah said without looking up. “No transmissions in or out since last night. Either they’re being careful… or they’ve been cut off too.”Adrian’s jaw tightened. “Then we assume the worst. Locke’s cleaning house.”He leaned back in his chair, studying the map — police stations, Locke facilities, transport routes. Every line drawn in red conne
Chapter Seventy three– Old Shadows, New Lines
The wind carried a bite that morning — sharp, restless, charged with the kind of electricity that promised storms. The harbor was still, but the tension in the air was not.Adrian stood at the far end of the docks, his phone pressed to his ear. The call rang five times before a voice finally answered.“...You shouldn’t be calling me, Adrian.”The voice was low, deliberate — a man who had learned to measure every word.“Hello to you too, Marcus,” Adrian said, his tone dry. “It’s been a long time.”“Long enough for me to remember that talking to you is dangerous,” Marcus replied. “Especially now. Locke Global is burning, and your father’s looking for arsonists.”“Then maybe it’s time someone added fuel to the fire.”There was silence on the other end. A seagull cried over the water.“You sound different,” Marcus said finally. “Less idealistic.”“I had to grow up,” Adrian said. “But right now, I need information. Cole Renn is being held under a federal order that was pushed through your
Chapter Seventy four– Traces in the Wire
The message came just before dawn — a single encrypted ping that woke Sarah from her shallow sleep. She sat up at once, the dim light from the laptop painting her face in blue.Adrian was already awake, pacing near the window. He hadn’t slept at all. “It’s from Marcus?” he asked the moment she moved.Sarah nodded, fingers flying over the keyboard. “Yeah. No header, no metadata. Just a file name: GreyHarbor_Transit_17A. Looks like he hid the data inside a shipment log.”Adrian came closer, watching as the text unfolded — lines of coded coordinates, reference numbers, and timestamps. It looked meaningless until Sarah overlaid it on the town’s digital map.A series of red dots appeared — shipping containers scheduled for transport the next evening. One of them, marked with an unusual clearance tag, was routed to a federal site outside the city.Sarah froze. “That’s him. Cole’s being moved.”Adrian leaned in, studying the map’s flickering path. The route cut inland, then north — a convoy
Chapter Seventy five– Running in the Dark
The rain hadn’t stopped since dawn. It fell in thin, slanted sheets, turning the city’s alleyways into mirrored rivers of light and shadow.Marcus Hale moved through them like a ghost — soaked, breath fogging, his coat heavy against his back. Behind him, the sound of tires splashing through puddles echoed off the narrow brick walls.They were close.He ducked into a narrow passage between two abandoned warehouses, pressing himself against the wall. His hand slipped into his pocket and pulled out a small flash drive — the twin copy of the file he’d sent Adrian. His insurance.Marcus exhaled. If they catch me, the file survives.He tapped his earpiece, whispering, “Adrian, if you can hear this, they’ve traced the signal. You have less than—”A sharp burst of static cut him off. Then a faint voice — Sarah’s. “Marcus? You’re breaking up. Repeat.”Marcus cursed quietly. “Tell him… Cole’s in transit. Federal route 7-B. South access gate—”The signal died completely.Marcus slipped the earpi
Chapter Seventy six– The Convoy
The rain had turned to a solid curtain by nightfall, the kind that blurred the world into streaks of gray and light. Wind clawed at the coast road, and the ocean roared against the cliffs below as if warning them to turn back.But Adrian didn’t turn back.He sat behind the wheel of an old cargo van, headlights slicing through the storm. Sarah sat beside him, a map spread across her lap, its edges damp from her fingertips. Every few minutes, she glanced down at her tablet — watching the pulsing red dots that marked the convoy’s route.“They’re about twenty minutes ahead,” she said, raising her voice over the wind. “If we stay on the access road, we’ll intercept near the ridge before they reach the checkpoint.”Adrian nodded, eyes fixed on the rain-slicked asphalt. “We’ll only get one chance. Once they reach federal territory, he’s gone.”Sarah looked at him — his face half-lit, half-shadow, jaw set, rain dripping from his hair. He looked every bit the man who had once commanded boardro
Chapter Seventy seven– The Voice in the Storm
The van tore through the night, its tires fighting the flooded road, the wipers useless against the sheets of rain. The storm had swallowed the world — no stars, no horizon, only flashes of lightning cutting the darkness in savage bursts.Sarah gripped the wheel, jaw clenched, every muscle tight. The back of the van rattled with each bump, where Adrian crouched beside Cole, trying to keep him awake.Cole’s skin was pale and clammy, his breath ragged. “You should’ve… stayed out of this,” he muttered.Adrian shook his head. “You’d have done the same for me.”Cole gave a ghost of a grin. “Yeah, but I’m not the one with a billionaire father and a death wish.”Adrian actually laughed — short, quiet, but real. “You’re not wrong.”Then the radio crackled.Sarah frowned, glancing at the console. “That’s not local police frequency.”Adrian moved forward, adjusting the dial. Static hissed — then a voice broke through, calm, deliberate, unmistakable.“Adrian.”Sarah’s hands froze on the wheel. C
Chapter Seventy eight– The Quiet Between Storms
By dawn, the storm had eased into a steady drizzle, leaving the world drowned and colorless. The van sat hidden beneath a crumbling cliffside awning—what was left of an old military storage depot that had been half-swallowed by the sea.Inside, a single camping lantern flickered weakly, throwing jagged light across tired faces.Cole was stretched out on a makeshift cot, a bloodied bandage wrapped around his side. Sarah sat nearby, eyes red from exhaustion but alert, her fingers wrapped around a mug of instant coffee that had long gone cold.Adrian stood by the shattered window, staring out toward the faint line of the horizon. The rain traced slow, deliberate paths down the glass, and for once, there was silence.Cole broke it first. “We lost them?”Sarah nodded. “The bridge is gone. No way they’re tracking us in this mess.”“Good,” Cole muttered. Then, after a pause, “Bad news is—they’ll be back.”Adrian turned from the window, his expression unreadable. “Not right away. Victor will
Chapter Seventy nine– The Archive
The fog rolled in from the sea like breath from a sleeping giant, thick and silver in the moonlight. It cloaked the coastline in silence, hiding even the sound of the waves.Three figures moved through the mist, dressed in black, keeping low as they crossed the perimeter fence. The building ahead rose like a monolith from the cliffs—sleek concrete walls and mirrored glass, no visible signage. Only those who needed to know knew what it was.The Locke Archive.Sarah crouched near the gate’s control panel, her hands steady as she wired a small device into the keypad. “Signal’s clean,” she whispered. “I’ve looped the cameras for twenty minutes.”Cole leaned against a rock, still pale from his wound but sharper than ever. “That’s all we’ll get. After that, every alarm in this place starts screaming.”Adrian nodded once. “Then let’s make it enough.”The gate clicked open with a soft hum. The three slipped inside.The courtyard was eerily empty—rows of security lights glowing under the fog,
Chapter Eighty – The Cost of Fire
The world above the cliff was chaos.Flames leapt from the Archive’s upper floors, black smoke curling into the fog. Sirens wailed somewhere in the distance, swallowed by the wind. Adrian, Sarah, and Cole burst from a side exit and sprinted toward the coast road where their van was hidden behind the ridge.Cole carried the datapad pressed to his chest, still tethered to a portable drive that blinked with faint blue light — their proof, their weapon, their one chance.“Go, go, go!” Sarah yelled, throwing open the van door.Adrian shoved Cole inside and jumped in after him. Sarah started the engine; the tires screeched against the wet gravel as the van tore away from the burning building.Through the mirror, the Archive looked like a dying beast, its heart gutted but still thrashing.Cole coughed hard, clutching his ribs. “We got it. All of it.”Sarah glanced back. “You’re sure?”He nodded, grinning through the pain. “The transfer completed before the purge. Victor’s backup’s useless wi